Snow, Floods Hit Plains States, Southwest

A wintry storm buried parts of New Mexico under a foot of snow Sunday and pushed temperatures to record lows in 10 cities in the Plains and the West, while strong winds uprooted trees and knocked out power to thousands in Texas.

Flooding was reported in southeast Nebraska, where parts of Highway 136 east of Auburn were closed because of floodwaters that were still rising. A flood warning was posted for the Missouri River from Nebraska City southward.

A new storm bore down on Alaska Sunday after record rains forced hundreds to flee homes flooded to the rooftops near Anchorage and cut off the only road between Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska’s two biggest cities.

In Seward, 85 miles south of Anchorage, 200 people were rescued from their homes Saturday night and 18 people fled a senior citizens’ center threatened by floodwaters from 14 1/2 inches of rain in 36 hours.

To the north, in Talkeetna, flooding from the Talkeetna River and numerous rain-swollen creeks forced the evacuation of at least 156 people.

Snow covered much of the northern half of New Mexico, and the highway department sent out snowplows, sand and salt crews to keep roads open. Cold rain was scattered from southern and eastern New Mexico across northwest Texas.

Eight inches of snow fell as far south as Grant in west-central New Mexico, and 12 inches fell in Chama near the Colorado border.

Record low temperatures were reached as far south as Albuquerque, where a 31-degree reading snapped the old record of 33 set in 1973. The temperature dropped to a record 18 degrees at Pocatello, Ida., and Sheridan, Wyo., and record lows were also reached in Goodland, Kan.; Midland and Amarillo, Tex.; Missoula, Mont.; Salt Lake City; Yakima, Wash., and Portland, Ore.

Winds gusting to 60 m.p.h. roared through Houston, uprooting trees, ripping apart billboards and knocking down power lines. Tens of thousands of customers in the Houston area were left without electricity.